INNOVATIONS.

Internet Entering Space Age

Satellites Pave High-speed Path For Broadband

April 16, 2001|By Stephen Williams, Newsday.

It's an unearthly solution for a high-flying concept: the Internet via satellite.

High-speed Internet routing via satellites orbiting above the equator is an evolving technology that "paves" another pathway to that elusive cosmic superhighway, where entertainment, information and communications converge.

This newest reach for broadband Internet access doesn't involve buried cable lines or phone wires, but a cycle of electronic links that travel from a rooftop dish across nearly 50,000 miles of space.

First up with this consumer-aimed system last year was a Virginia-based company called StarBand Communications, formed in early 2000. StarBand has more than 25,000 customers already online in the continental 48 states, and plans to expand to Canada and beyond.

About to be marketed is a similar product from Hughes Network Systems, whose sister company is DirecTV, which operates the enormously successful television-satellite broadcast service.

DirecTV has contracted with several resellers, including Pennsylvania-based Pegasus Communications' Pegasus Express, to sell bundled packages, which include dishes, modems and TV and Internet subscriptions. A half-dozen more providers are expected to attack this market in the next five years.

The target audience for these spacey ventures are the 50 million U.S. homes that lack "terrestrial" access to either cable modems (via cable television lines) or fast digital subscriber line connections, which run over telephone lines.

StarBand President David Trachtenberg couldn't be happier than when he reads about the competition.

"The cable and DSL guys have educated the consumer for us about high-speed access," he said. "They promised a revolution and haven't delivered. So here we are."

His audience, Trachtenberg said, will be "the frustrated seekers who live where DSL or cable is available, but who can't get it quickly, or whose lines are `dirty.' Or they just don't want to deal with the cable and telephone companies."

Already StarBand counts among its clients Native Americans on the Havasupai Reservation in the Grand Canyon and a Wall Street-type in a Park Avenue penthouse. And Lori Murello. Murello lives in a house in Massapequa Park, N.Y., that is served by cable and phone lines ... and a StarBand dish, which she insists is her preferred method of online access.

"I'm pretty happy with it," Murello said. "There's not a lot of problems, I download data quickly, and the service is consistent, which is what I like best about it."

Murello has the dish connected to her personal desktop PC, and a DSL-equipped laptop to access the network at her employer, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"The DSL line is better than a regular phone modem, but it's slow, and I'm thinking about getting rid of it," she said. As for the cable modem, "I don't have enough experience with it yet."

"By 2005, 1 of 5 households still won't have access to any form of terrestrial broadband, so, yes, satellite is a viable product," said Michael Goodman, a senior analyst with the Yankee Group, a Boston-based technology research firm.

Long-term, Goodman said, satellite broadband "has a much bigger opportunity internationally. Look at Latin America or China or India, with little in the way of built-out infrastructure. The business model changes dramatically when you see this as not just a domestic product."

Even with higher prices than cable or DSL, Goodman forecasts satellite providers will cash in on a 15 percent to 25 percent share of the broadband market. "But they're not challenging to be the lead supplier," he said.

An elegant proposal

In theory, up- and downloading to the Net via a space bird is an elegant, environmen-friendly proposition. Signals travel from a user's PC through a rooftop dish designed to send such data.

The information is received by the satellite, and then relayed to a Net server in a terrestrial station. The return send path reverses the process.

But satellite-to-dish transfer is not perfect. Bad weather conditions--heavy snow, especially--can sandbag service, and high winds have been known to shift the dish position, throwing the sensitive receiving mechanisms out of alignment.

And StarBand is no bargain. Monthly service fees range up to $69, and the initial outlay for equipment and installation can run as high as $700.

Comparable monthly fees for high-speed cable or phone service is roughly $30 to $50. Installations generally cost $100 to $200, but frequent promotions by phone and cable companies often eliminate the hookup fees.

For many customers, even more relevant than pricing are the numbers on data-transfer rates. In terms of pure delivery speed, satellite connections are a few ticks behind DSL and cable modems.

Satellite service providers claim any delays in sending data along the 50,000-mile round-trip journey to space and back will not be noticeable in most applications.